Dance and Social Justice Fellowship Program

PAST FUNDS


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Made possible by the generous support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs CreateNYC Disability Forward Fund and the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, the purpose of the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Dance and Social Justice Fellowship Program is to recognize the critical role that disabled dance workers and arts practitioners play in social justice movements and to ensure that these workers are supported while continuing to place disability front and center as a positive artistic and generative force. Dance/NYC recognizes that, despite the multiple ways disabled communities have been impacted by COVID-19 and ongoing racial violence, disabled dance workers have remained active in serving their communities through online programming, community organizing efforts, and mutual aid, often without compensation or funding. The fellowship program provides a recognition of all activities completed between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021.

The program was a non-competitive application by invitation to participants of the 2020 Disability. Dance. Artistry. Dance and Social Justice Fellowship Program. Dance/NYC’s aim in administering the invitation-based program was to reduce administrative costs (thereby ensuring the largest number of funds went to disabled dance workers), reduce applicant labor, and offer renewed funding to the 2020 cohort in recognition that they continued to remain active in their dance and social justice activities.

In September 2021, Dance/NYC awarded the following 27 recipients of funding:

  • April Biggs
  • Audre Wirtanen
  • Branden Wallace
  • Christine Krishna Washburn
  • Christopher Núñez
  • Dominic Bradley
  • Donald Lee
  • Elisabeth Motley
  • iele paloumpis
  • Jannell Alvanzo
  • Jerron Herman
  • Kayla Hamilton
  • Kiah Amara
  • Kiera Bono
  • Mana Hashimoto
  • Moira Williams
  • Ogemdi Akunna Ude
  • Sidiki S. Conde
  • Sonya Rio-Glick
  • Walei Sabry
  • x
  • Yo-Yo Lin
  • Anonymous (5) 

Grantees were awarded one-time grants of $700 based on dance and social justice activities undertaken during the Fellowship period, July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021. The 27 grantees were selected for awards provided they met eligibility criteria and in alignment with key evaluation criteria which included: need, defined as expenses incurred in the development and execution of eligible activities; a commitment to justice, equity, and inclusion, with consideration for the role historically underfunded groups including African, Latina/o/x, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA), LGBTQ+, women-identifying, gender nonconforming and/or nonbinary, and immigrant artists play within the applicant pool and wider dance field; and a diversity of participant roles and perspectives.


Related Resources:

Call for Proposals (August 10, 2021)

These and all products generated by Dance/NYC for the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Dance and Social Justice Fellowship Program are licensed to the public subject to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

In August 2020, Dance/NYC announced the following 26 recipients of the inagural Disability. Dance. Artistry. Dance and Social Justice Fellowship Program:

  • April Biggs
  • Audre Wirtanen
  • Branden Wallace
  • Christine Krishna Washburn
  • Dominic Bradley
  • Donald Lee
  • Elisabeth Motley
  • iele paloumpis
  • Jannell Alvanzo
  • Jerron Herman
  • Kayla Hamilton
  • Kiah Amara
  • Kiera Bono
  • Mana Hashimoto
  • Moira Williams
  • Ogemdi Akunna Ude
  • Sidiki S. Conde
  • Sonya Rio-Glick
  • Walei Sabry
  • x
  • Yo-Yo Lin
  • Anonymous (5) 

Grantees were awarded one-time grants of $1,000-$2,000 based on dance and social justice activities undertaken during the Fellowship period, March 11, 2020 through June 30, 2020. The 26 grantees were selected by a review panel and were among a pool of 30 metropolitan New York City area individual dance workers with disabilities who submitted applications in response to an open call. Key evaluation criteria included: need, defined as expenses incurred in the development and execution of eligible activities; a commitment to justice, equity, and inclusion, with consideration for the role historically underfunded groups including African, Latina/o/x, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA), LGBTQ+, women-identifying, gender nonconforming and/or nonbinary, and immigrant artists play within the applicant pool and wider dance field; and a diversity of participant roles and perspectives.

Related Resources:

Announcement of Disability. Dance. Artistry. Dance and Social Justice Fellowship Recipients (August 7, 2020)

Announcement of Disability. Dance. Artistry. Dance and Social Justice Fellowship Program (June 30, 2020)

Call for Proposals (June 30, 2020)

These and all products generated by Dance/NYC for the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Dance and Social Justice Fellowship Program are liscensed to the public subject to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

A dancer in a black tutu and leotard and pointe shoes stands on one leg, with the other leg extended behind the body in a straight line. One arm is raised above the head and the other extended to the back parallel to the extended leg. The school director is opposite the dancer and wears a red DTH logo t-shirt and black pants and ballet slippers. She holds the hand of the arm raised above the dancer’s head with one arm and her back arm is extended and she is smiling at the student.

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